Minors rape 14-year-old at Baruipur, set her on fire

Just a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the media in Bengal of giving undue and extensive coverage of rapes in the state, so polluting tender minds, her police had to register an FIR of gangrape of a minor by three boys, two of them minors, at Baruipur, about 15 km to the south of Kolkata.

What made the crime a very rare one, indeed, is that not only did three minors, aged between 12 and 16, allegedly rape the 14year-old girl, but also set her on fire. The girl, the daughter of a daily-wage labourer, is battling for life at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.

The victim was raped in her own home on Tuesday afternoon. The three boys — Sottu Naskar, 20, Susanta Sarder, 15, and Bappa Mondal, 12, all locals — entered her room on Tuesday afternoon and raped her.They then poured kerosene on her, set her on fire and fled.

The neighbours noticed the fire and rushed to rescue the girl, who is now in hospital.

"Rape are being highlighted every day as if the entire state has become a land of rapists. They're glorifying rape. Negative journalism only destroys and it’s time to champion positive reporting," the chief minister had said on Monday evening at a function to inaugurate the festive issue of the Trinamool Congress party organ, JagoBangla.